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This is Andrew Shaffer, creative director of greeting card publisher Order of St. Nick and author of the forthcoming Harper Perennial paperback original Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love. This is his blog.

 

Disclosure: Book reviews may be based on advance reading copies supplied by publishers. Also, Andrew's first book is being published this fall by HarperCollins, so there's a chance he might be biased towards their products. On a completely unrelated note, be sure to pick up Sarah Palin's memoir, which the author believes to be a "compelling read."

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« Book Review: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith | Main | Amazon vs. Macmillan: Round 1 »
10:17AM

Amazon vs. Macmillan: Round 2...TKO?

Amazon's Kindle team posted a plea directly to their customers on Sunday, signaling what may be the end of the dispute between Amazon and Macmillan. However, as of Monday morning, Macmillan's books were still unavailable for purchase on either Amazon.com or the Kindle.

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

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